The last time Taylor Swift was in Dublin came at one of the lowest ebbs in her seemingly ever-ascendant career. Two nights at Croke Park, just over six years ago, were far from sold out, coming off the back of the mixed reception to Reputation.
Since then, there have been five new studio albums and four vaunted ‘Taylor’s Versions’ rerecords of her older albums, That’s a rough total of 225 songs, new and old, since Swift was last in Ireland. It’s a lot to digest, maximalist fan service.
And yet she’s never been bigger. All those albums, bar 2019’s Lover, came out post-March 2020, when the pandemic left us desperate for live shows (Swift notes as much on Saturday night). We all entered different, er, eras - Swift’s saw her change sound and recruit The National’s Aaron Dessner as co-producer for folklore/evermore. New fans and renewed critical acclaim followed.
Her first stadium tour since Reputation, The Eras Tour began in March 2023 and was a sensation across the US last year. It’s the highest-grossing tour in history, the first to pass $1bn. Simply put, Taylor Swift returns to Dublin the biggest act on the planet.
Now, she could have done a week of sold-out Croke Park shows. Instead she’s settled for three nights at the 50,000-capacity Aviva Stadium. Home to the Ireland men’s soccer and rugby teams, it has probably never seen such joy as this weekend’s trio of gigs (apologies to Stephen Kenny). Sequins, pink cowboy hats, glitter, gems colourful cowboy boots, and bracelets - so many beaded friendship bracelets - are the order of the day, inside and outside the venue.
And everybody knows what’s coming after Paramore (what an interesting career Hayley Williams has had) complete support duties: Swift’s show lasts over three hours and 15 minutes, takes in more than 44 songs, and stretches as far back as her hopeful second album Fearless, pulling tracks from across her Eras. Everyone has their own favourites they’re counting down to (well, after ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’) and the ones they’re planning the toilet break for.
We knew 1989 was full of bangers but the way it follows the folklore/evermore era - a bit of a yawn during the show, to be honest - make 'Style', 'Blank Space', and 'Shake it Off' sound like the best songs in the world by comparison. Of course, Swift released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, in April. It sounded like she was coasting. Live, the songs are fine, 'Who's Afraid of Little Old Me', with its moving podium, is the highlight.
As for Taylor Swift herself, she's magnetic, strutting down the walkway that divides the pitch. There's nobody better at pointing, she extols the virtues of Ireland (particularly how folklore just feels like an album written here), and you simply can't look away from her, even though it feels like there are times when she is giving it less than she could.
She butters us up too, explaining during the folklore era: "I just think that all the themes in folklore, how I imagined the album world looking — Ireland, storytelling, lots of different characters. You guys have that on lock too, that's very Irish, the storytelling. When I was making the album, it was two days into the pandemic that I started writing folklore, and I wasn't in Ireland, so I had to create an album where the imaginary world that I pretended to go every single day when I was writing it, gotta be honest, it kinda seemed like Ireland. So we're back where we belong. Conceptually, folklore, we can all agree, just belongs with you guys."
But it’s the fans who are the star of the show. It’s incredibly loud from the start and never lets up. The 'Cruel Summer' bridge ("I love you ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?") is incredible. 'Love Story' is beautiful.
The cry of ‘f*ck the patriarchy’ from ‘All Too Well’ is life-affirming. The cheer after the ho-hum 'Champagne Problems' was something else, though. It's unbelievable. A security guard agrees that he's never heard anything like it before. There's nothing like the cries of a pop audience. If only we could bottle it up.
Like Marvel fans predicting/dissecting end-credit sequences, the ‘surprise songs’ that precede the Midnights closing segment are feverishly anticipated. Friday night got ‘Sweet Nothing’, namechecking Wicklow. Saturday got a song she says she's never done live before — 'The Albatross', with a little bit of 'Dancing with our Hands Tied' thrown in for good measure, 'This Love', and 'Ours'.
The Eras Tour finishes up at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday night and is set to wrap up in Canada in December. The millions of fans who experienced it will never forget it. Like Taylor Swift sings on '22', it feels like a perfect night.
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Watch: Taylor Swift Fans descend on Dublin
